The ‘right’ of the road

PACHU MENON

The other day near Verna Industrial estate, I was aghast to see an ambulance zigzagging through the teeming traffic with its sirens blaring being refused the right of road by a couple of cars and a pick-up moving on the right flank of the road, and all at a snail’s pace at that. 

Are such people oblivious to the fact that more the time taken by the ambulance to negotiate around such drivers, the critical patient inside is being deprived of that many precious minutes of his life! 

Ambulances and emergency vehicles need to be given the right of way! 

Yet, as a sad but honest observation of the self-conceited manner on display on our thoroughfares, we need to admit that Indian roads are filled with drivers of moronic mindset. 

Goa of late is smitten by the fad shown by drivers for maintaining their vehicles on the right side of the road for the entire duration of their journey making overtaking from the left an absolute necessity clearly contradicting the driving fundas in India which suggest that drivers travelling at slower speeds should use the left lane. 

The empirical rule on Indian roads, ‘keep left unless overtaking’, is now only limited to road-etiquette classes in driving schools with the new corps of drivers hardly paying heed to the lessons so fervently taught by the instructors. 

It is as if all the training received at the institute was only to impress the motor vehicle inspector conducting the test for granting a driving license! 

Under these circumstances, the need to follow lane discipline and the awareness to educate citizens on the essentialities of lane driving becomes all the more important for the smooth flow of traffic. 

With traffic snarls having become the order of the day, it is becoming glaringly obvious that ignorance about the nuances of driving in designated lanes has the potential to throw traffic topsy-turvy. 

Not that traffic in Goa is by any measure organized! Now that even autos and two-wheelers have brazenly caught on to the craze, driving on Goan roads has become a nightmare of sorts. 

With drivers impudently demonstrating their ‘personal entitlement’ over the right side of the roads, it becomes increasingly difficult for those who want to take a right or U-turn at junctions governed by traffic signals as they find themselves blocked by these errant drivers. 

It is about time the law enforcers moved over from their vantage points from where they are seen issuing challans for comparatively minor traffic violations and concentrated on bigger blunders on highways which require their urgent intervention to be set in order. 

However, with police vehicles too following the same pattern of movement on the roads without exception these days, it would appear that the confusing form of motoring has the endorsement of the authorities! 

Or else, the police too are in need of disciplining for turning a blind eye to such irregularities. 

It is nevertheless perplexing to note that the public continues to relish the stupidity in adopting a mode of driving that is insanely illogical.   

But having dwelt at length on the subject of the ‘right’ of roads, it becomes equally essential to throw a glance around our thoroughfares which are literally fighting for survival faced that they are by the ‘onslaught’ of the ever-increasing vehicular movement and a typical outlook which does not permit people to accede to the demands of the time.

For that matter, no one will willingly relinquish their land!

The news report last week about PWD engineers and the district administration having a tough time carrying out demolition of a house in the government-acquired land at Fatorda as the occupants of the house refused to vacate it, is quite a common feature of the stubbornness on display of the local populace in a state where public thoroughfares have receded to ‘accommodate’ private structures.  

A drive along the main roads crawling with traffic within and through the cities and villages in the state makes it amply clear that road-widening as an essential exercise to decongest the urban and rural stretches has never received the sort of attention that the situation warrants in Goa. 

Although unanimous in their opinion that traffic congestion is the bane of most of the urban settlements in the state, it is difficult to understand the hesitation shown by the town planners to pursue the matter in earnest. 

With the increased vehicular movement in the state demanding enhanced motoring space, it is quite surprising to have houses, religious and various such other structures lining the roads within the town limits and its suburbs all along ‘resisting’ the demolition plans proposed time-to-time by the authorities. 

The illegal structures dotting the roadsides on the other hand are like challenges to the administration, standing tall even after umpteen attempts to raze them to the ground. 

Improved road development plans as the need of the hour to avert the traffic snarls experienced can only be envisaged and executed with public support. 

But apprehensions of local protests spiraling out of control if demolition works were to carried out in ‘disputed’ areas have restrained the authorities from going all-out with their plans. 

Owners of residential and commercial establishments too have been equally adamant in their refusal to cooperate with the road-widening projects undertaken. 

The rising clamor for better roads and traffic management system in Goa hence appears to be a knee jerk reaction of the locals towards the perennial inconvenience of bottlenecks that makes travelling a harrowing experience. 

It is all the more exasperating to observe the political ‘blessings’ extended by leaders in the state for the ‘conservation’ of some of the structures that blossom ‘overnight’ on roadsides to attain the seal of ‘permanency’ on their existence. 

The onus is on the district administration to come down heavily on those blatantly opposing road-widening process and such other welfare measures by insisting on ownership rights and enhancement of government rates for acquiring the property. 

Roads, as traveled ways on which people and wheeled vehicles move, have metamorphosed into new ‘genres’ with the passage of time. 

From mud tracks to asphalted surfaces; from two way roads to highways, freeways and expressways, the thoroughfares are being constantly ‘upgraded’ to make commuting that much easier and enjoyable for the people.

However, roads today have the dubious distinction of being in the public domain for something they were never conceived for – as discussions on the matter of driving and widening!